A7 chip versus XBox One

[TallManNY]

How would the A7 chip with its 64-bit architecture compare with the processors in the next generation consoles? Are they just worlds apart?
What about if I stuck 8 GB of ram onto the A7 chip?

I'm just wondering how close Apple is to being able to make the Apple TV a legit gaming console.

 

[maflynn]

Completely different animals. You're comparing a chipset designed for high graphic performance, to one that is low powered, does multiple disparate functions and is designed for a cell phone.

 

[swish2351]

Yeah this makes absolutely no sense.

That's like comparing a bicycle to a Harley-Davidson

 

[user-name-here]

Yeah this makes absolutely no sense.

That's like comparing a bicycle to a Harley-Davidson

Or like comparing a gas-sipping Yaris to a turbo-charged Ferrari.

 

[BenTrovato]

Well if someone's curious about it, it's definitely a valid question!

I think the answer will be hard to come by simply because Apple does not reveal a whole bunch of information on the processors so it makes it harder to understand what you are comparing.

 

[TallManNY]

Kind of what I figured. But you have to admit that Infinity Blade III looks very good. So the A7 can run a good looking game on at least a small screen.

So MCSFT doesn't need to worry. For now. But if this next generation console is intended to last for six years, how do you think its power will compare to the A10? This is pure speculation. But in three years could Apple be putting in something that starts to become comparable to the consoles?

 

[neoelectronaut]

Until Apple figures out a way to get buttons on the device, I and many others won't be interested in iPhone gaming in the least.

 

[jclardy]

Kind of what I figured. But you have to admit that Infinity Blade III looks very good. So the A7 can run a good looking game on at least a small screen.

So MCSFT doesn't need to worry. For now. But if this next generation console is intended to last for six years, how do you think its power will compare to the A10? This is pure speculation. But in three years could Apple be putting in something that starts to become comparable to the consoles?

Ehh, they would be getting closer - but the problem is that they have different goals. Xbox runs as fast and as hot as it can when playing a game. If an iPhone gets "warm" people freak out. iPhone also has to manage battery life and speed. The main advantage the iPhone has is that it gets updated every year.

 

[user-name-here]

Until Apple figures out a way to get buttons on the device, I and many others won't be interested in iPhone gaming in the least.

I don't understand why they don't just write in iCade support into iOS 7

Hell, even if they wanted 100% of the profit just make your own bluetooth controller apple, charge a boatload for it as you do for all apple products, and write in support for all app store games for that controller into iOS!

 

[Dontazemebro]

More like galaxies apart

 

[Bako-MacAddict]

You gotta love threads these at macrumors ! Lol I had a good laugh though.

 

[Carlanga]

Until Apple figures out a way to get buttons on the device, I and many others won't be interested in iPhone gaming in the least.

I don't understand why they don't just write in iCade support into iOS 7

Hell, even if they wanted 100% of the profit just make your own bluetooth controller apple, charge a boatload for it as you do for all apple products, and write in support for all app store games for that controller into iOS!

you guys seem lost, you do realize apple released MFI and there are going to be officially licensed controller now. iCade support is based on how much moeny a dev pays to have their game be supported, witht he new apple approved controllers I can see the iCade just start letting devs use their stuff free.

 

[neoelectronaut]

you guys seem lost, you do realize apple released MFI and there are going to be officially licensed controller now. iCade support is based on how much moeny a dev pays to have their game be supported, witht he new apple approved controllers I can see the iCade just start letting devs use their stuff free.

So then I have to start carrying around a controller? That sounds ridiculous. I'm fine with my 3DS thanks.

 

[Carlanga]

So then I have to start carrying around a controller? That sounds ridiculous. I'm fine with my 3DS thanks.

Lol there is a Logitech one that does double duty as a case. The thing looks like a smaller vita w it

 

[TallManNY]

you guys seem lost, you do realize apple released MFI and there are going to be officially licensed controller now. iCade support is based on how much moeny a dev pays to have their game be supported, witht he new apple approved controllers I can see the iCade just start letting devs use their stuff free.

I think you are right. I think an A7 (or maybe next years A8) with some tweaks (because heat and power are non-issue) and dropped into an Apple TV with 8 GB of Ram might be a very viable gaming machine. It would launch with basically the whole iOS gaming universe either working fine or needing a few weeks of coding to work fine. Well maybe not all because of the difference between a touch input and a controller input, but certainly the FPS, driving games and many more would work fine. Connect a controller by Bluetooth and I think you are in business as a gaming platform. Maybe nothing to worry about for the big boys right now. But possibly something that will push them to upgrade their hardware much faster than they did in their last generation.

 

[Kurso]

I think you are right. I think an A7 (or maybe next years A8) with some tweaks (because heat and power are non-issue) and dropped into an Apple TV with 8 GB of Ram might be a very viable gaming machine. It would launch with basically the whole iOS gaming universe either working fine or needing a few weeks of coding to work fine. Well maybe not all because of the difference between a touch input and a controller input, but certainly the FPS, driving games and many more would work fine. Connect a controller by Bluetooth and I think you are in business as a gaming platform. Maybe nothing to worry about for the big boys right now. But possibly something that will push them to upgrade their hardware much faster than they did in their last generation.

I agree that an Apple gaming device would be cool but the A7 is still worlds apart from what is under the covers in the Xbox or PS4.

In terms of the raw compute power the A7 is still well under even something like an Intel Atom CPU. GPU wise it is probably 10-15% of what a mid-range GPU is on a PC.

One day though...

 

[SluGuru]

Remember, the A7 only has to drive a 4 inch screen so it requires less processing power. When we see Apple finally put gaming on the Apple TV it will likely use AirPlay depending on the resources of an iPad or iPhone or it will use almost all of the resources off of the cloud on remote servers. I doubt Apple cares about traditional AAA games so either of these possibilities is technologically available today.

 

[elistan]

I'd be interested in knowing the respective benchmarks of the CPUs and GPUs. I just learned that 3DMark is available for iOS. I assume there will be a 3DMark score for the GPUS the Xbox uses, which can be compared to the 5s's score.

 

[asleep]

A7 chip versus Alienware?

 

[WhoDaKat]

This thread doesn't seem so silly now. PS4 and XB1 are using CPUs made for laptops (granted with 8 cores) and the GPUs aren't anything to write home about at least in comparison to top graphics cards in PCs. My point is an A7X made to work in a new Apple TV focused on gaming could be sending chills up a lot of peoples backs.

 

[regkilla]

Better comparison is the xbox one and PS4 which the PS4 wins hands down.

 

[179202]

Yeah this makes absolutely no sense.

That's like comparing a bicycle to a Harley-Davidson

Or like comparing a gas-sipping Yaris to a turbo-charged Ferrari.

So very comparable then. Your examples are bike vs bike and car vs car...

 

[RoboWarriorSr]

I agree that an Apple gaming device would be cool but the A7 is still worlds apart from what is under the covers in the Xbox or PS4.

In terms of the raw compute power the A7 is still well under even something like an Intel Atom CPU. GPU wise it is probably 10-15% of what a mid-range GPU is on a PC.

One day though...

Didn't the geek bench benchmarks for the A7 put it around the range of the first or second gen Macbook Air which had a Core 2 Duo (a heavily modified version though)? The GPU is supposedly better than the intel GMA integrated graphic cards of '08 according to notebook check.

 

[alent1234]

How would the A7 chip with its 64-bit architecture compare with the processors in the next generation consoles? Are they just worlds apart?
What about if I stuck 8 GB of ram onto the A7 chip?

I'm just wondering how close Apple is to being able to make the Apple TV a legit gaming console.

it will still need the storage

both consoles have 500GB hard drives. the xbox one games have installs of 30GB and more to hold the data.

A7 can have similar specs to xbox 360 but until apple ups the storage to hundreds of GB you won't get games with the same production quality

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This thread doesn't seem so silly now. PS4 and XB1 are using CPUs made for laptops (granted with 8 cores) and the GPUs aren't anything to write home about at least in comparison to top graphics cards in PCs. My point is an A7X made to work in a new Apple TV focused on gaming could be sending chills up a lot of peoples backs.

no storage

 

[lordofthereef]

Kind of what I figured. But you have to admit that Infinity Blade III looks very good. So the A7 can run a good looking game on at least a small screen.

So MCSFT doesn't need to worry. For now. But if this next generation console is intended to last for six years, how do you think its power will compare to the A10? This is pure speculation. But in three years could Apple be putting in something that starts to become comparable to the consoles?

Infinity Blade is more a testament to developers than the chip it runs on. Don't get me wrong. For what it is, the A7 is a powerhouse. But what makes the entire Infinity blade series look so fabulous is that there really isn't a whole lot being rendered. For the most part it's two characters and a background. There isn't a whole lot going on except the interaction between the two characters at any given time.

You also have to consider resolutions. The XBOne is 1920x1080 The iPhone 5S is 640x1136. The iPhone's output is 1/3 that of what the XBOne has to do. The retina ipad beats that, but my suspicion is that up-conversion/scaling goes on here and that it is not a true 2048x1536 (speaking games).

This isn't to say that Apple couldn't do VERY well loading games on their Apple TV. Games already sell really well on all of their other devices. And most of them don't even require a beast processor to get the job done (hell, look at the phenomenon that is tiny wings... which I think is ridiculous, but that's beside the point).

One final thing to consider is heat output. You could push the A7 to its limits, but without active cooling, that *might* pose problems. Of course I supposed Apple could add some sort of cooling, but that would be different than any APple TV before it.

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A7 can have similar specs to xbox 360 but until apple ups the storage to hundreds of GB you won't get games with the same production quality

They could require the dreaded "always on" connection and essentially have you download/stream the game while it's playing.

That is but one option, of course. There are less "sexy" options, such as allowing for an external hard drive (easy to do, though feels "un-Apple) or simply not allow dozens of games to be installed at one time.